Atlanteknology - Technology News for Atlantic Canada

RIM comes to town

RIM announced yesterday that it would be opening a support  facility in Halifax Regional Municipality, creating over 1000 jobs, most of them paying (according to reports) around 40-50K per year. That’s 50 million in wages, more or less. Quite a shot for the economy of the region.

More important (in my opinion) is the possibility the new facility will act as a catalyst for additional growth for technology based companies in Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada. Taken in combination with the announcement last Thursday that Keata Pharma Inc. is opening a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Cape Breton (to employ 165 persons within 3 years) together with the fact that one of the proposals put forward by the Premier’s Advisory Council on Innovation - being the increase of the SR & D tax credit from 15 percent to 40 - one could be forgiven for feeling more optimistic about the prospects for the technology economy in this region.

The proposal to increase the SR & D tax credit is exciting. As the report notes, “[Building improved business R & D capacity … is a key innovation and commercialization challenge.” Further, the fact that the increased credit, if it is approved, will be the highest in Canada should send a message that Nova Scotia is taking the knowledge economy seriously (at long last).

Note: The SR & D tax credit helps companies offset the costs of research and development by refunding a percentage of permitted costs, including wages. Unfortunately, not enough companies utilize the resource for a variety of reasons. They should really re-consider, regardless of whether the credit goes up or otherwise. As said by J.P. Deveau of Acadian Seaplants in a recent Chronicle Herald article, “This change - this enhanced tax credit – would allow us to increase our investment in R & D which would result in improved technology, enabling our company to be more productive and therefore more competitive.”

The birth of a company

The most recent issue of Progress magazine (which I recommend to everyone who is interested in business news in Atlantic Canada) has a good article in it on startup companies and I encourage you, if you are a startup or wish to start a company, to read it. It is enlightening and inspirational.

There is another article in the magazine called "Sightlines". Two things struck me about the article. First, that I had never heard of the company called Coemergence which is featured in the article.

Here is a company that, by all accounts, is doing great stuff and yet appears (at least to me) to have missed the radar screen. Its a great example of Nova Scotia not trumpeting the successes of our technology based companies. Now, someone may respond by citing all kinds of examples of coverage but I bet if you asked people if they know this company, the answer would be "No" (probably true for many companies - which furthers my point). One of the goals of my blog is to let people know. And so I am. The company's website is quite nice by the way.

The other things that struck me was that Progress magazine was discussing introductory intellectual property concepts. This validates one of the other purposes of my blog - to provide information on intellectual property topics for people in Atlantic Canada. If Progress thinks it is topical, that makes me feel good. Plus, they have a significant distribution and the message will certainly get out there.

The only other thing that really caught my eye was a comment on the "downside" to Atlantic Canada by Michael Chender "A bit off the beaten track. Limited air travel, exposure to markets, and activity within our peer group" With some hard work, we can change that!

Dalhousie Industry Liaison and Innovation

I attended a social event tonight. The purpose was to introduce the staff for the new Dalhousie Industry Liaison and Innovation Centre. The purpose of the Centre (located on the Dalhousie campus) is to assist in the commercialisation of technology developed by researchers at Dalhousie University.

Another interesting feature of the Centre is to provide businesses with the opportunity to access skilled researchers in areas where businesses need assistance. I spoke with Harneet Kalra (the individual responsible for this) and I was both excited and impressed about this initiative. I will not publish his contact particulars here but you will find them on the website.

The whole event was an exciting development for Halifax and Nova Scotia in my opinion. It shows yet another advancement for the development of technology related businesses. There are other entities out there which are working in the area. Springboard is (to use its words) "[A] network whose mission is to encourage the effective and efficient transfer of technology among universities in Atlantic Canada and to advance the commercialisation of research within both universities and the region's private sector."

There is also GINIus which "[P]rovides valuable access to these possible solutions by providing applied IT and software research services and specialised technical training solutions to private and public sector clients" (among other activities).

There are also industry associations - Bionova (which I have discussed in previous posts) and ITANS (the Information Technology Alliance of Nova Scotia).

And thats just in Nova Scotia.

The Atlantic Provinces are working to develop technology based businesses in a variety of ways. Once I get through my backlog of topics, I'll make a post talking about some of the other resources available. You can also navigate to some of the websites I have noted in the sidebar on the right side of your screen in the meantime.

What is Intellectual Property?

I have been asked this question many times. The matter came to mind this weekend when I was listening to CBC and they were discussing the protect of "IP" and how Canadians (and people around the world) do not treat it seriously. Because of this (and other reasons) people generally have a "who cares" attitude when it comes to such things as downloading music/video/software illegally for free.

Because so many people have asked me what IP is and the questions come from people across a wide socio/economic spectrum, I tried to think of a very easy way to define IP, not in technical terms, but in terms which people can relate to. Some people may disagree with the example I have, but I think it sets the stage for further investigation and is better than no knowledge in my opinion.

IP, I suggest, can best be understood by looking at a book. It does not matter what kind of book. Lets use Harry Potter as an example.

You can buy a Harry Potter book. You own the book, the paper, the spine, etc. Its yours. You can read it, you can use it as a paper weight, you can use it to help you light a fire in your fireplace, you can throw it at someone. The book. The physical object.

However, hovering over that book is another right. Its like a shield surrounding the book and following it around. Its called copyright. Literally, its the right to copy the words written in the pages. This right is owned by someone and that someone may be the author but it may not be. It is not you (in most cases). You do not own the right to make copies of that book. Someone else does. You can purchase that right (for a price) but when you buy the physical book, you do not buy the right to make copies of it.

This right, copyright, cannot be picked up. It cannot be burned. It simply exists from the moment the book was created. It is "intangible", not "real" in the way a book is. BUT, it is no less "real" in the legal sense. It is "Intellectual Property".

If you make copies of it, the owner of the right to make copies (the copyright owner) can prevent you from doing this and, if you have made money from the copies, can demand the repayment of that money. It is no different an offence if someone builds an ATV trail across your backyard without your permission or if someone steals your car.

All of which leads me to the point of the CBC programme. They were discussing the "need" to beef up Canada's IP laws (the Patent Act, Copyright Act, Trade-marks Act and others). They say that we need new laws or modified laws to protect the owners of IP. That the government should be a part of things. I disagree. The legislation, for the most part, has provisions that allow owners of IP to enforce their rights. It can be expensive and it is the responsibility of the owner to protect itself. But the mechanism exists. The courts may need to be better educated and the penalty provisions of the laws may need to be more aggressively enforced but I do not think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the foundation.

Should the government be the watchdog and do if for you? Not in my opinion. The government does not watch your backyard, nor does it keep an eye on your car. Theft is a crime but it is also a wrong for which you, as an individual, can sue the thief. The individual who drives across your yard may be committing some sort of offence for which the government may have a say but s/he is also trespassing and that is something only the property owner can deal with.

Trade secrets - What are your secrets?

I'm more than happy giving credit where credit is due and I found this brief yet interesting summary of trade secrets (valuable technical information, designs, formulae, plans, concepts, etc.) on the website of a Mexican law firm.

Here in Canada, trade secrets are not protected not by written laws (like the Patent Act or the Copyright Act) but by judge made law.

All of which leads me to the topic of how trade secrets and confidential information are relevant in the real world. Well, two recent cases highlight this. The first is that of the executive from Microsoft who went to work for Google. Big litigation there centred around non-compete clauses in the employment contract. These are clauses which say that you can't compete with your old employer for a certain period of time in within a specific geographic area (ex. no competition for one year within Nova Scotia).

Also, there is the case which arose recently of the Motorola executive who just jumped ship for Nortel. He was sued to keep him from working at Nortel and to prevent him from disclosing confidential information about Motorola. Nortel and Motorola settled the dispute out of court - Nortel paid Motorola a significant amount to make it go away (among other terms to the settlement).

The wisdom of the day: Trade secrets and confidential information are valuable -protect them! Create good contracts which spell out obligations and rights. Create and maintain strict internal security procedures if applicable. Contracts with employees and outside third parties can (and often should) have confidentiality clauses which protect and control the spread of information.

Upcoming topics

Well I went to a conference last week and my mind started spinning with thoughts of topics for posts. Then I got my hands on the October 2005 issue of Progress magazine (a magazine devoted to business issues in Atlantic Canada) which I think is a fantastic publication and recommend it to anyone in business - money well spent. After that, I had so many ideas (and inspiration) that I decided to do a littler series on various topics.

Trade-secrets: what are they, how valuable are they, how do you protect them.

Financing: CEDIF's (community economic development investment funds), CPC's (capital pool companies), Angel financing (see a previous post), venture capital financing, government programmes.

Open Source software: What it is, whether you can benefit from it, what are the risks.

Information Technology and Health Care: What are the dynamics of it and how can you benefit (financially and in terms of your health).

Genetically modified foods: GURT's (genetic use restriction technology) - what is it and how can it help, recent case law and thoughts on the future.

These topics and more, coming to your computer screen in the near future. Stay tuned!